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Arthur Miller was a working-class
boy who rose to become one of the
leading US dramatists of the mid-20th
century—he was, however, largely
looked down upon by US critics.middle-class colleagues look down
on him and he lacks respect for
himself, because he feels that he is
not doing “real work.” He accepts
society’s admonitions to “better
himself,” but he feels like an
imposter and is puzzled by his
sense of discomfort. He believes
that the only explanation is that
there is something wrong with him.
Sennett maintains that workers
tend to see their failure to fit in and
achieve respect as personal failure,
not as a condition of societal
divisions and inequalities. He
quotes James, a highly educated
son of an immigrant, who sees
himself as a failure, whatever he
does. “If I really had what it takes,”
he says, “I could make this school
thing worthwhile.” On the other
hand, if he “had the balls to go out
into the world” and get a real job,
that would earn him real respect.
James holds himself responsible
for not having more self-confidence
and for having failed to “develop.”
The political is personal
This conjunction of class and self
is a uniquely US phenomenon, says
Sennett, that is tied up with the
prizing of “the individual.” Success
in IQ tests and schooling is seen as
a way of freeing an individual from
his or her social conditions at
birth—everyone who truly has merit
or intelligence will rise. This belief
in equality of opportunity is at the
heart of the American Dream.
Working-class children do
not have the same opportunities
as children from more affluent
backgrounds, and those who strive
to excel are seen as traitors. They
are exiled from their peer groups,
with a subsequent loss of self-
worth. The tools of freedom are a
source of indignity for them, both
at school and at college, where they
are looked down on for not knowing
the rules and lacking in wider
cultural knowledge. Their
educational achievement exposes
them not to respect but to disdain
from the middle-class people
around them and they suffer a
sense of failure and alienation.
According to Scottish-American
businessman Andrew Carnegie,
the justice of industrial capitalism
is that society will always reward
“a man of talent.” If a person is
worthy of escaping poverty, he
or she can do so. If he or she does
not have the ability to “make it,”
however, what right does that
person have to complain? As
Sennett notes: in a meritocracy, if
you fail, you have no merit. Failure
to succeed is due to personal
inadequacy. In this way the
inequalities of class become hidden
by the widespread “personal
failures” of working people.
The Hidden Injuries of Class is
a subtle and sensitive exploration
of working-class lives that exposes
how social difference can be made
to appear as simply a question of
character, competence, and moral
resolve, when it is essentially a
matter of inherited class. ■SOCIAL INEQUALITIES
Richard Sennett
Literary author and sociologist
Richard Sennett was born in
Chicago to parents with
communist beliefs. Both his
father and uncle fought as
internationalists in the civil
war in Spain. Sennett was
brought up by his mother in
one of the first racially mixed
public housing projects.
Sennet studied cello at
Juilliard in New York City, but
a wrist operation in 1964
brought his musical career
to an end. He began a career
in sociology at Harvard
University, and has taught at
Yale and the London School of
Economics (LSE). In the 1970s
he cofounded The New York
Institute for the Humanities
with writers Susan Sontag and
Joseph Brodsky. Sennett made
his name with The Hidden
Injuries of Class, which he
wrote after spending four
years researching with
Jonathan Cobb. He is married
to sociologist Saskia Sassen.Key works1972 The Hidden Injuries of
Class (in collaboration with
Jonathan Cobb)
1974 The Call of Public Man
2005 The Culture of the New
Capitalism